If that matter is a human being (or some other creature with intelligence), then awareness of its existence seems to be a natural by-product of perception and intelligence. Lacking perception or intelligence, matter (to the best of my knowledge) never becomes aware of its own existence. Being aware of one's own existence is another way of saying that one possesses self-awareness. It may be that certain types of what we classify as intelligence are needed for self-awareness but matter might be called "intelligent" without possessing the requisite self-awareness. Unfortunately, the personal experience of self-awareness is fundamentally different than its physical manifestations (behaviour, language, neuro-electrical impulses), so this field has been very resistant to philosophical and scientific examination, though many great minds (and plenty mediocre ones) have tried.

It actually doesn't. The confusion or mistaken idea that matter "becomes aware" probably originates from the fact that a non-physical dimension animates it or sets it in motion or is aware of the existence of matter. Perhaps one could describe the non-physical dimension as "spiritual" or "spiritual type entities", a "life force" imposed on the physical universe. But matter in itself has no awareness...it is just stuff. Matter tends to follow the physical laws. "Awareness of being aware" is not a physical thing. The "life force" or something spiritual is something different from matter. It doesn't follow physical laws. It can not be measured physically in itself, because there is "nothing" there physically. One could say it is another universe of dimension and has interactions with the physical universe. The spirit or life force is not composed of matter, energy, or even space and time. However, the spirit is impinged upon the physical universe and can animate or influence areas of the physical universe. A body's eyeballs can not see something not physical, however an awareness unit or spirit could be aware of perceptions such as what is received with eyeballs or other body sensors, but it also has the potential to perceive things which are not physical. The confusion tends to come about because we have a physical dimension along with a non-physical dimension together. One could say that we have mud and also an animator, a doll and a "kid". Verifying the non-physical is a whole different question.

There are a number of books that deal with this question. The best answer I have found was written by an engineer who tried to apply the western laws of physics to human behavior, coupled with the philosophies of the Far East. It did not seem efficient to him that one could only discover the truths of existence by meditating on a mountaintop for most of one's lifetime. He wanted more immediate answers that could be discovered and applied by anyone, not just those who dedicated their whole existence to it. The book FUNDAMENTALS OF THOUGHT by L. Ron Hubbard is a good place to start. It touches on several areas of existence. If that piques your interest, there are other books by Hubbard that go into much greater detail.

I have to agree with Thommy's answer to some extent. I am not convinced that matter can be "aware." It may well be a non-matter property of humans. Your question presumes something that, as far as I know, can't be demonstrated or proven. Unless some animal manages to master abstract language communication, we can't even know that animals are aware of their own existence. Computer programs can only respond to inquiry about their existence and operation by the design of the hardware or software architect. I am convinced that humans are the same way. We only are aware by the design of our Architect. Unless you can demonstrate otherwise, I would argue that the assumption imbedded in your question is in error.

All matter is self aware in and of itself as matter. Everything around from a rock, a tree, a jelly donut if you will, has the potential to expand its energy to fill all the universe if its atoms were inverted. The Universe would end as we know it if this occured. Lucky enough we are unworthy to weild that power or some carbon based creature would screw up Gods Great Chaotic Plan. All energy is capable of being a negative or a positive. That is based on one of either two aspects. fixed and radical energy. A rock would possess a fixed energy, as a tree will have a radical energy as would any living creature would possess this energy as well. The energy in the rock does not change, it is fixed, whether that is negative or positive energy depends on what kind of material the rock is made. It makes no judgement or choice what energy it is made of. A living creature on the other hand, has a type of radical energy thats affected by the surroundings and stress around it. When a living organism becomes aware of this energy, it has become self aware to those surroundings, pressure. stress and all aspects of its enviroment. Calculating the exact moment matter becomes self aware would be on the cellular level. For instance they say life starts at conception? So what are sperm before they reach the egg? Are they not alive? Life actually doesnt begin in the human female...but in the male. Sperm or at least their matter becomes aware as soon as their cellular structure is released in the testes....they are not aware of the enviroment, but will react to heat and cold.

It's a funny way to phrase the question. If it means, "How do people become aware of their existence?" then I think the theory of evolution is the best overall answer. That said, I don't think we'll ever have a truly complete answer that all reasonable people can agree on. I think Daniel Dennett is a brilliant writer on how we can understand such things as consciousness and free will in evolutionary terms. His recent book, "Freedom Evolves", is amazingly intelligent. The dualistic notion that awareness/consciousness comes from some non-physical "spirit" or "life energy" just doesn't work. If something affects our physical reality then it is detectable, since detection is nothing but observing the effects of something. Also, if it affects physical reality then it certainly must have some physical charactistics that can be observed and studied by the usual scientific methods. This is such a difficult and endless subject!

Matter has some form of awareness. It remembers in what time and place it exists. It also remembers it's shape and what it is made from. To remember it's shape means it must be aware of itself. The alternative would be chaos. The laws of physics are only of use providing everybody plays the same game and agrees to the rules. In some other part of the Universe the laws may be different or non existant. All forms of intelligence and awareness need not be Neural.

Matter does NOT become aware of its own existence. The physical universe is made up of matter, energy, space and time. What created Matter, Energy, Space and Time (MEST)? Something outside the physical universe, i.e. something of a spiritual nature, not made up of matter, energy, space and time. That something is what is aware of its own existence. It has no mass, no location in space or time, but it is capable of creating energy, hence the creation of the physical universe. Each individual is a spiritual being. Man has lived as a victim of the physical universe for so long that he has forgotten that once he was as the gods themselves, capable of whatever he could imagine. You are aware of your own existence. Therefore, you are a spiritual being, trapped inside a meat body. There is a way out.

This is a strange question and appears to assume an error by using the word "it." The pronoun "it" suggests that a thing (rather than a person) has awareness. Despite the apparent perversity of things (indicated by Murphy's Law), I am not aware of any evidence that "matter" has self-awareness. Also, if the only axiom you allow in your system is that I HAVE AWARENESS, THEREFORE I EXIST (I think therefore I am) I don't know how you could be sure that there is any awareness other than your own -- all else could be the figment of your imagination, including matter itself. In the Bible there are persons that have awareness and say "I." But only beings that have spirit have awareness. (To be sure there are a couple of illustrative stories, i.e., fables, recorded where for example a thistle speaks; but these are just illustrative stories. Epistemology: How can we know anything, iincluding the answer to the question given? If I say that A is true because of B, how do I know that B is true? Because of C? But then C needs a D to prove it, and on & on to infinity, with no final proof of anything. Yet there are certain truths which are so obviously true that we do not prove them, but use them to prove other things. I don't need any proof that I exist, but I could use "I exist" to prove something else. Self-evident truths (axioms) need no proof and are not provable, but are used for proof. Answers to questions such as the nature of awareness can be developed if you will admit 2 axioms: 1. The God of the Bible exists 2. The Bible is the Word of God.

This is the short version. Big bang spews quaks through the universe. Under the force of gravity the quaks bunch up together, the force of gravity becomes so great that the quaks fuse and become the basic element hydrogen, these hydrogen atoms then fuse together through gravity and create stars. Through a form of fusion, two hydrogen atoms collide, an electron is gained by one of the hydrogen atoms and becomes helium. This process continues in billions of stars, creating every element on earth today. Some stars explode throwing those elements into the universe. These elements finally come under the force of gravity and pull together to form meteors, which later become planets, which begin to orbit the stars. A planet having the right elements and being the right distance from a sun produces amino acids (http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=7872). Those amino acids evolve into DNA, and then single celled organisms. Those single celled organisms eventually evovle into a multi celled biological creature, and that multi celled creature evolves into a complex multi organed creature, and that creature evolves through time to need greater intelegence in order to survive its current enviroment, and that intelegence grows greater over the process of evolution and gradually results in a conscience. Awarness of its existence would be a combination of stimulated biological sensors sending electrical signals to a processing organ(brain), which would then interpret those electrical signals and allow understanding on whatever level. This is how matter becomes aware, it takes a process of billions and billions of years. The definition of awarness is subject to scrutiny. But lets say it is determined by a recognition of self. So if I call my dog, it recognizes its name and comes to me. It therefore must have an awarness of self to asign itself a name. I will now show how awarness and understanding can be measured using matter. The amount of matter in the brain does affect the level of awareness in a creature. This can been seen by looking at the brains of different creatures. A dogs brain is smaller than a humans brain, and so its level of understanding and awarness is less then a humans. A sperm whales brain is bigger than a human brain. The reason why a sperm whale has less understanding and awarness than a human is because there is an optimum size for a brain. To small and there isn't enough brain matter to process information. If the brain is to big, the distance between parts of the brain are further, and the distance from sensory perceptors are further, causing information to travel further and thus slowing the processing power of the brain down. It also takes longer for the body to supply oxigen and nutrients to all parts of the brain, causing it to slow down. At the moment the human species has evolved to produce the most effecient brain size. Looking at the following, you can see that the amount of matter in the brain can effect a creatures ability of awareness. In conclusion: matter matters.

maybee it starts out or ends up a thought or fealing manifested as pure form of energy thus it always has known as it simply just is and always has been

I assume you're refering to us. Don't know, very good question...

the matter doesn't, the energy patterns within the matter do.

awareness is higher level of life , it means sense of the self in spirtual dimention, it is very difficult to explain it physically since it is somewere in the field between matter and soul ( I think ), it is more deeper than the lost matter (which is just newly discovered), awarenes is strongly associated with optional intelligence which is a characteristic feature of humanbeing that differs from intelligence of some intelligent animals (which depends on skills and reflexes based on previous expriences) spirtually speaking it is light of the spirit of the God